Rat Rock to The Sisters, March 11th 1996

I paddled from McInnis Park
to Rat Rock in San Pablo Bay one day
last year, and I was interested in completing the rest of the coast to
another pair of islands. On that trip, I noticed I was paddling along
another park for most of the shore. This turned out to be China Camp
State park, named after the colony of Chinese immigrants who used to
live in the cove here. The immigrants used to fish the shallow waters
of the bay for grass shrimp as an export product. Apparently there were
several factors competing to close down this colony: As the bay was
developed the habitat for grass shrimp dwindled, and the settlers were
also hassled by one of those recurring waves of anti-immigrant racism.
Sort of like the one we are having now, but a little more blatant. The
buildings left behind by the settlers are now historical monuments in
the park. I parked my bus behind these buildings ($3.00 for day use
parking) and got my new kayak ready to go.

This was a rainy, windy, overcast morning, but since I got up
early with Marty I had a few hours I could spend kayaking on my way to
work. China Camp is practically on the way to work from Berkeley, so it
was a good place to stop. I figured I would be paddling into the wind
most of the trip, so if the weather got really bad I could just let it
blow me back to my car. The tide was going out, but was due to go slack
in a few hours. If I was out that long, there would be no current to
hinder me on the way back.

First I paddled a few hundred meters north to circle Rat Rock.
Then I paddled past the end of China Camp State Beach, and finally past
a little city park that has tennis courts near the beach. All along
this shore there are picnic tables on well maintained grassy parks,
overlooking rocky points sandy beaches or marshy areas with birds. I
would highly recommend this as a picnic spot to anyone, even if it
would be a little bit of a drive to get here. But past this last park,
the shore instantly turns from park land into an industrial park. There
is a noisy facility that loads rock and gravel onto barges, and it was
at work as I went by.

I passed The Sisters islands as I went around Point San Pedro. I
had considered paddling farther and visiting the
Marin Islands again.
But as I came around the point I turned into the full force of the wind.
I looked over several kilometers of whitecaps and decided I would
rather get to work earlier than fight my way over that. So I turned
back to The Sisters. These are two rocks sticking out of the water on
the west side of the narrow channel connecting San Pablo Bay to San
Francisco Bay. I had first seen the Sisters when exploring
The Brothers,
two rocks on the east side of the channel. The Sisters were
covered with cormorants this morning, and I started out with the intent
of giving them a wide berth. But as I went around the far side of these
two rocks, I ran into a tidal rip current. The tide leaves San Pablo
Bay later than the rest of San Francisco Bay, and this was probably the
maximum current today through this channel. It was not a very strong
tide, and the current was under 3 miles an hour according to my Tide
Log. But there may be another submerged rock underwater here, because
there was a small area of standing waves where the current really seemed
to rip by. I turned to paddle back out of this as fast as I could, and
ended up going very close past the East Sister island. The cormorants
didn't seem to mind me getting so close.

The trip back to China Camp was uneventful and relaxing. After
the heavy rain showers while I was unloading the kayak and getting into
my wetsuit, it stopped raining for the rest of the trip. The sun came
out several times from behind the clouds, which were running past quite
fast in the wind. I probably could have left the wetsuit jacket behind,
since I didn't even need it as a raincoat.

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Mike Higgins / higgins@monitor.net